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Sunday, April 30, 2017

30 April - Blogs I'm Following 1 of 2

[image: undefined] Congress ended the week by passing a continuing resolution keeping the government funded for one more week. This stopgap funding bill is designed to give Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a long-term spending bill. Passage of a long-term spending bill has been delayed over objections to Republican efforts to preserve Obamcare's key features but give states a limited ability to opt out of some Obamacare mandates. This type of brinkmanship has become standard operating procedure on Capitol Hill. The drama inevitably ends with a spending bill being ...more »

Published on Apr 29, 2017 Former UN official was forced to resign in March after criticizing Israel. Rima Khalaf said Israel is an apartheid state. She’s now had a chance to explain her decision for describing Israel as such. Modern Ashkenazi Khazars (90+% of modern Jewry) are NOT the Jews of the Bible! Ashkenaz is […]

Here’s Who NATO Will Probably Be Fighting If There’s a World War III by Darius Shahtahmasebi, http://theantimedia.org/ (ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) Russia recently said it would support Iran’s bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an emerging economic and political alliance led by China. This Shanghai Bloc was originally formed in 1996 before it was rebranded in 2001. Its membership includes […]

The U.S. Military’s Master Plan to Fight Russia and China in a War Is Already Here by Dan Goure, http://nationalinterest.org/ When faced with adversaries who seemed able to match or counter U.S. military-technological superiority, the Department of Defense began an intensive effort to invest in a new generation of capabilities designed to restore U.S. military preeminence or […]

CFACT Senior Policy Advisor Paul Driessen explains that "(r)ecent science and climate marches demonstrated how misinformed, indoctrinated, politicized and anti-Trump these activists are – and how indifferent about condemning millions in industrialized nations and billions in developing countries to green energy poverty. It’s as if reality, truth, discussion, and debate have become irrelevant where feelings, leftist dogma, climate science, or public policies are involved. On the climate front, at stake are $100 billion a year in reparation funds for poor countries, $7 trillion a year...more »

ONE VERSION OF THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP -- GENERAL DYNAMICS' USS INDEPENDENCE (LCS-2). IMAGE SOURCE: U.S. NAVY. *Motley Fool:* *Will Congress Put the Kibosh on the Navy's New Frigates?* *GAO takes Pentagon to task for plans to spend $9 billion on an imaginary warship.* The U.S. Navy is pulling the plug on its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program. That's not the official storyline, of course. Officially, the Navy still supports the LCS, of which 14 ships have been christened, 10 of which have actually entered service (granted, half of those subsequently broke down -- but that's anoth...more »

FDR was a godsend for this country after 3 consecutive Republican presidents nearly wrecked it. But afterwards when did things start going really drastically wrong in America again? Drastically wrong enough to place a 2-bit hustler from Queens into the Oval Office? After Roosevelt there were some good presidents and some bad presidents and mostly some pretty mediocre presidents but where things really turned to shit was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected. All the anti-New Deal conservatives finally had their antidote to Roosevelt. And then in 1992 the Democratic Party proved i...more »

THE USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51) WAS A MODERN NAVY WARSHIP -- WHEN IT WAS BUILT IN 1985. BUT IT CANNOT MEET THE NEEDS OF A 21ST-CENTURY NAVY. IMAGE SOURCE: U.S. NAVY. *Rich Smith, Motley Fool:* *Why the Navy Needs a New Destroyer* *If it doesn't get one, it may be forced to "go to war with the destroyers it has -- not the destroyers it might want or wish to have at a later time."* The U.S. Navy is not a very flexible force. Out of 275 ships on the Navy's "Battle Forces" list, fully 23% of the Navy's ships are Arleigh Burke-class "destroyers," and 25% are nuclear submarines. Throw i...more »

It was not always a crime to enter the United States without authorization. In fact, for most of American history, immigrants could enter the United States without official permission and not fear criminal prosecution by the federal government. That changed in 1929. On its surface, Congress’s new prohibitions on informal border crossings simply modernized the U.S. immigration system by compelling all immigrants to apply for entry. However, in my new book “City of Inmates,” I detail how Congress outlawed border crossings with the specific intent of criminalizing, prosecuting and i...more »

Originally posted on Climate Etc.: by Javier Vinos First in a two part series on Holocene climate variability. Summary: Holocene climate is characterized by two initial millennia of fast warming followed by four millennia of higher temperatures and humidity, and a progressively accelerating cooling and drying for the past six millennia. These changes are driven…

Originally posted on Watts Up With That?: Guest essay by Mike Jonas “so much to say…so little time.” – Roy Spencer I have at last found the time for the next step in my Sun-Cloud-Ocean calculations. But first, I would like to thank everyone who commented on my previous article. Some are addressed directly below,…

BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:45 A.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is preparing for their final assault on the Al-Qaboun District of east Damascus after making a number of advances in the area over the last 72 hours. Capitalizing on the recent jihadist infighting, the Syrian Arab Army’s 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division (Ghiath […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (4:00 A.M.) – All hell has broken out in rural Damascus as thousands of civilians took to the streets to protest rebel factions killing one another on Sunday. Scores of civilians were wounded, and many shot dead, as Jaish Al-Islam tried to disperse protesters in the Irbeen district among other places: Remarkably, the […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (3:00 A.M.) – On Sunday, ISIS militants based in Deir Ezzor fired an anti-tank missile towards a modified T-72 tank which was severely damaged upon impact. According to Amaq Agency who released the video, the incident took place in the embattled cemetery area, southwest of Deir Ezzor city itself: Currently, government forces are […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

It's perfectly reasonable to worry that the Trump administration could eviscerate the social safety net, deprive tens of millions of people of health insurance, give a legal green light to police brutality, and possibly start World War III; that's off the top of my head, and you probably have your own list of very plausible fears. But sorry, Josh Marshall -- this isn't going to happen: *Priebus: Trump Considering Amending or Abolishing 1st Amendment* A number of press reports have picked up this exchange this morning between ABC’s Jonathan Karl and White House Chief of Staff Reince ...more »

*Michael Peck* *Security, * The ultimate battle on the ocean. *Why is a battleships’s underwater armor important? Battlewagons hurled big cannon shells at each other, not torpedoes, which is why battleships tended to be more heavily armored above the waterline.* *But tell that to the German warship Bismarck, which was ultimately hunted down and sunk after a 14-inch shell from the British Prince of Wales landed short, dove through the water and penetrated the German battleship below her more lightly armored waterline.* *As part of its quest for qualitative superiority, Japan tra...more »

*Kyle Mizokami* *Security, Asia* But it never happenned. *The firepower of the battleships—and their destructive range—would have increased substantially. Trading one turret for 20 Harrier jets was a pretty good deal. Add the Tomahawks and their ability to strike with precision at a thousand miles and the improvements looked even better. The resulting warship would have equaled the firepower of a Nimitz-class supercarrier.* *But as before, the Iowas’ inherent inefficiencies worked against them. With a crew of nearly 2,000 each, the ships’ high personnel costs made them prohibi...more »

Dandelion Salad originally posted Feb. 11, 2014 Joe Friendly on May 30, 2014 Editors Frances Goldin, Debby Smith, and Michael Steven Smith, join with 2 of the many contributing authors, Clifford D. Conner and Mat Callahan to discuss their book, Imagine Living In A Socialist USA, how it got published, how it has been received, […]

*Washington Times:* *President Trump invites President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to White House* A photo of President Trump grinning broadly and pumping his fist topped the Philippines’ leading newspaper on Monday after news broke that the Mr. Trump had invited President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. The invitation stands in sharp contrast to the friction between the populist, plain-spoken Mr. Duterte and the Obama administration. This is the latest example of Mr. Trump’s willingness to engage authoritarian leaders that President Obama kept at arm’s length. Mr. Tru...more »

This article smells mostly like propaganda. ISIS is a tool of US-Pentagram-CIA. The deployment of troops in Syria is for the next phase of the war against Syria. ISIS is more or less defeated. – Donald Trump Deploys US Troops Along Syria Border with Turkey to DETER ISIS Aggression by ALETHA ADU, http://www.express.co.uk/ PRESIDENT Donald Trump has […]

Russia’s Clear Signal to US: Think Twice Before Using Your Nukes by https://sputniknews.com/ Russian parliamentarian Frants Klintsevich, who recently criticized British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon’s remarks about using nuclear weapons in a first strike attack in “the most extreme circumstances,” has now sent a tough warning to the US in case of any similar aggression. – […]

Thousands Damaged by Shingles Vaccine are Trying to Sue Merck by Frances Bloomfield, http://www.naturalnews.com/ (Natural News) What was supposed to be a cure for shingles has brought on worse complications. Thousands have attempted to file lawsuits against American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. for problems associated with their product Zostavax. In an interview with TROFire.com, Troy Bouk, […]

107 Cancer Papers Retracted Due to Peer Review Fraud by CATHLEEN O’GRADY, https://arstechnica.com/ New papers were found through investigations into previous fraud. The journal Tumor Biology is retracting 107 research papers after discovering that the authors faked the peer review process. This isn’t the journal’s first rodeo. Late last year, 58 papers were retracted from seven different journals— 25 […]

No need for a bank: Just a smartphone and a blockchain. Houman Haddad/UN World Food Program Big Wall Street companies are using a complicated technology called blockchain to further increase the already lightning-fast speed of international finance. But it’s not just the upper crust of high finance who can benefit from this new technology. Most simply, a blockchain is an inexpensive and transparent way to record transactions. People who don’t know each other – and therefore may not trust each other – can securely exchange money without fear of fraud or theft. Major aid agencies, no...more »

The Relentless Push Towards War. This Time with North Korea. Why? by Chris Martenson, https://www.peakprosperity.com/ The only real constant to be found in both European and US politics is war. A steady feature of both regions for the past 20+ years has been small, lucrative conflicts waged against countries unable to effectively defend themselves. – It doesn’t […]

Ukraine, Korea, Syria, Iran… Falsifying History is Uncle Sam’s Way to War by FINIAN CUNNINGHAM, http://www.strategic-culture.org/ Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the International Arctic Forum this week on the real and present dangers from falsifying history. He said such deliberate distortion of history erodes international law and order, creating chaos and leading to further conflict. – The […]

Published on Apr 25, 2017 Alasdair MacLeod joins Silver Doctors to reveal there’s a battle going on in the silver market between the speculators and the bullion banks. Physical demand for silver is extremely high, but the price has not been affected. MacLeod speculates the price is being deliberately suppressed by the bullion banks at […]

Japan Is Dumping A Record Amount Of Foreign Bonds: Here Are The Implications by Tyler Durden, http://www.zerohedge.com Back in February, around the time Bloomberg caught up to what we had been discussing for the past year, namely the historic dumping of US Treasurys by offshore official investors (such as central banks and reserve managers, just […]

One attendee called the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a family reunion where she doles out hugs and kisses to her colleagues that she only gets to see about once a year.

"Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The bubble of expanding gas pictured below is the planetary nebula PK 164 +31.1, the remnants of the atmosphere of a Sun-like star expelled as its supply of fusion-able core hydrogen became depleted. Visible near the center of the nebula is what remains of the core itself- a blue-hot white dwarf star. This particularly photogenic planetary nebula shows intricate shells of gas likely expelled at different times toward the end the star's demise, and whose structure is not fully understood. *Click image for larger size.* This deep i...more »

*“The Universe Becomes Conscious of Itself” * by Chet Raymo "By now most of us will have seen this spectacular photograph of a dusty star-birthing region of the Carina Nebula, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. I offer a slightly different cropping from what you may have seen in the media or on APOD. Please click the image to see it it all of its glory. Let me add some context. The image shows an area of the sky that you could cover with the intersection of two crossed sewing pins held at arms length. Think about that for a minute. Hold two imaginary cr...more »

"How the Brain Stops Time" by Jeff Wise "One of the strangest side-effects of intense fear is time dilation, the apparent slowing-down of time. It's a common trope in movies and TV shows, like the memorable scene from "The Matrix" in which time slows down so dramatically that bullets fired at the hero seem to move at a walking pace. In real life, our perceptions aren't keyed up quite that dramatically, but survivors of life-and-death situations often report that things seem to take longer to happen, objects fall more slowly, and they're capable of complex thoughts in what would nor...more »

"Do you remember still the falling stars that like swift horses through the heavens raced and suddenly leaped across the hurdles of our wishes - do you recall? And we did make so many! For there were countless numbers of stars: each time we looked above we were astounded by the swiftness of their daring play, while in our hearts we felt safe and secure watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate, knowing somehow we had survived their fall." - Rainer Maria Rilke

I don't usually look for inspiration on TV, but Friday night I found it... on Bill Maher's show, no less. His special guest was Elizabeth Warren, whose new book, *This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle To Save America's Middle Class* is now available. She puts the rise of Trumpism into the context of increasing economic inequality. As she told Maher's audience Friday, she wrote that productivity has gone up in this country from 1935 to the present. But where America used to invest that capital in the middle class, things started changing-- drastically and for the worse-- once Reagan...more »

*Al Jazeera*: *Turkey threatens more strikes on US-allied Syrian Kurds* *Erdogan says more action possible against YPG fighters in Syria, insisting US support for Kurdish group must end.* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Ankara was "seriously saddened" by footage showing US military vehicles operating close to the border with Syrian Kurdish fighters, threatening further military action against a group Turkey sees as "terrorists". His comments came amid rising tensions over the weekend along the border, with both Ankara and Washington moving armoured vehicles t...more »

France has deployed about 4,000 soldiers in the region *France 24:* *French forces kill militants near Mali-Burkina Faso border* French soldiers killed more than 20 militants hiding in a forest near the border between the West African countries of Mali and Burkina Faso this weekend, its regional force said in a statement. The operation followed the death of a French soldier nearby earlier this month. It involved both air and ground strikes, the statement said, but failed to identify the militant group that was targeted. The French forces may have also captured some of the militants...more »

Miller: "It pains the media to give the president any credit for the work that he's done." Bernstein: "Nonsense." https://t.co/6ILs0cZC8S — Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) April 30, 2017 Courtesy of The Hill: *CNN commentator and veteran reporter Carl Bernstein on Sunday accused President Trump of lying "day in and day out." * *“He deserves respect as the duly elected president of the United States," Bernstein said on CNN's "Reliable Sources." "That doesn’t mean he deserves not to be called on lies. He has lied as no president of the United States in my lifetime has, day in...more »

*Michael Peck* *Security, * What if? Had things gone differently, the U.S. Navy's top Cold War fighter jet could have been the F-8 Crusader instead of the F-4 Phantom. But not the legendary Crusader that bested MiGs over North Vietnam. Instead, it would have been the XF8U-3, dubbed the Crusader III or the “Super Crusader,” a bigger, badder version of the F8U Crusader that the Navy flew in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Crusader III was developed by manufacturer Chance Vought at the same time as it developed the Crusader I and II models used by the Navy. Despite similar names, ...more »

*Christopher Whalen* *Economics, Americas* [image: Money with U.S. tax forms. Flickr/Creative Commons/Pictures of Money] Time to go back to the drawing board. Last week when the White House unveiled its long-awaited proposal for tax cuts, more than a few observers noted that President Donald Trump’s “new” plan looks a lot like the promises he made during his campaign. *Capital Economics* described the proposal: “[It has] deep cuts to corporate and individual tax rates. Even with dynamic scoring, however, the old plan was expected to increase the Federal budget deficit by $7 tril...more »

*Salvatore Babones* *Economics, Americas* [image: Restruck Mexican silver coin. Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons/@PGHCOM] Long before the dollar was painted Washington emerald green, it was polished Mexican silver. Hong Kong was a British colony from its founding in 1841 until its handover to China in 1997. But the Hong Kong dollar isn't derived from the British pound. It doesn't even come from the U.S. dollar. In fact, the Hong Kong dollar and the U.S. dollar are both derived from the same source: the Mexican or “Spanish” dollar. So were the yuan, the yen and most of the curr...more »

*Doug Bandow* *Security, Americas* [image: Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. Flickr/The White House] President Trump’s recent comments on NATO demonstrate a larger dilemma. Now he tells us. President Donald Trump admits that he said NATO was obsolete because, well, he didn’t know anything about the transatlantic alliance. So apparently his campaign comments now are inoperative. If he had to do it all over again, he’d probably sound a lot like, well, Hillary Clinton. When he was asked about the issue on CNN, he admitted, he deemed the organization obsolete “not...more »

*Michael O'Hanlon, Kathy Roth-Douquet* *Security, Americas* [image: Lt. Cmdr. Justin Griffin is greeted by family members during a homecoming ceremony following a seven month deployment aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. Department of Defense] Besides tanks and planes, Washington needs to consider the impact of deployment on service members and their families. President Donald Trump recently proposed an increase of $54 billion in next year's defense budget. While that sounds like a lot of money, relative to President Barack Obama's plan it is only about half as great, or some 5 perce...more »

*Timothy R. Heath, William R. Thompson* *Security, Asia* [image: Munitions are on display at a Chinese military post near Beijing. Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Department of Defense] Washington and Beijing are wary competitors, but neither country regards the other as its principal enemy. Graham Allison's April 12 article, “How America and China Could Stumble to War,” explores how misperceptions and bureaucratic dysfunction could accelerate a militarized crisis involving the United States and China into an unwanted war. However, the article fails to persuade because it neglects the ke...more »

*Warfare History Network* *History, Europe* South America’s only force to fight in the war contributed to the Allied victory in the Mediterranean. The term “United Nations” was in large part derived from the large number of nations that joined in common cause between 1939 and 1945 to defeat the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy during World War II. Scores of nations joined the major Allied powers to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the defeat of the common enemy. One of those nations was South America’s largest country, Brazil. The significant contribution of her we...more »

*Warfare History Network* *Security, Asia* The “Gooney Bird” became the terror of the skies during during the war. Off in the distance came the faint drone of a large propeller-driven aircraft. The sound got steadily louder, when suddenly a curtain of red fire erupted from the sky and rained down on the rice paddies in front of us. Puff! Puff, the Magic Dragon! When Puff unleashed that first six-second burst every man knew instantly what it was. The sound was indescribable, a deep guttural roar that anyone who has ever heard and lived, will always remember. Puff flew back and fo...more »

*Warfare History Network* *Politics, * Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had been personal and political opponents for twenty years when they clashed for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858. The two men facing each other across the debate stage at Ottawa, Illinois, on the afternoon of August 21, 1858, were no strangers to one another. Indeed, Senator Stephen Douglas and former one-term congressman Abraham Lincoln had been personal and political opponents—and more or less friendly neighbors—for the better part of two decades. But in ways neither man could imagine, their rivalry wa...more »

by David Swanson Writer, Dandelion Salad Let’s Try Democracy April 30, 2017 What I Said at the Peace Hub of the Climate March: Most countries on earth have the U.S. military in them. Most countries on earth burn less fossil fuel than does the U.S. military. And that’s without even calculating how much worse for […]

*Occupational licensing doesn't protect who you think it does. Rather than protecting consumers, its more about protectionism for those being licensed — and ideal way to bar competitors and minimize the dangers, to incumbents, of the new, novel and innovative. * *In fact, *argues *Jason Sorens *in this guest post, *Licensing tradesmen and professionals is about little more than consumer exploitation, .* Do occupational licensing laws protect you from unscrupulous and unqualified practitioners? Or do they just protect the current practitioners against new competition? These laws ...more »

J. R. "Bob" Dobbs is the figurehead of the Church of the SubGenius. His image is derived from a piece of 1950s clip art. According to SubGenius dogma, "Bob" was a drilling equipment salesman who, in 1953, saw a vision of God (JHVH-1 according to Church scriptures) on a television set he had built himself. The vision inspired him to write the "PreScriptures" (as described in the Book of the SubGenius) and found the Church. The theology holds that "Bob" is the greatest salesman who ever lived, and has cheated death a number of times. He is also revered for his great follies and belie...more »

*The baiting of Turkey is already a plan in action! But in this case I'm talking about the laying of a trap. Entrapment** to lure into a compromising statement or act* *Hopin' the Turks are wise to a possible false flag? * *Because the US will engage in that tactic if it benefits them. * *Hell they'll entirely fabricate an incident if it serves them. * *The most recent 'chemical attack' in Syria, comes to mind. I highly doubt anything at all occurred.* Hubby was reading the news this morning and said “*it sure looks as if the US is hoping to get a reaction from Turkey” *He even mentio...more »

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (1:55 A.M.) – The so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) seems to suffer from serious lack of manpower in Syrian Deir Ezzor governorate. The infamous terrorist group has been more and more active in recruiting child fighters recently. One of the Syrian opposition’s media outlets, DeirEzzor24, did an interview with a […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

On Sunday, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) targeted and destroyed two vehicles that belonged to militants of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Daraa province. The operation was successfully conducted on Al-Ghara Al-Sharqiyah road where SAA’s demolition squad planted roadside bombs which had been triggered when the aforementioned vehicles were passing by. As a […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (0:00 A.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) media wing released footage showcasing an important advance against Islamic State combattants in eastern Homs, targeting a series of mountaintops just north of the M-20 highway between Palmyra and the provincial capital of Homs. Supported by Hezbollah units, elements of the SAA’s 11th and 18th […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (11:30 P.M.) – Facing overwhelming odds, the Islamic State proved unable to withhold a Kurdish onslaught in western Raqqa as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) secured over half of Tabqa city today. Sweeping through the city center, Kurdish forward units were able to impose full control over the small neighborhoods of Al-Mahaci, Al-Buserab, […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

Turkey sees another wave of mass purge as government’s crackdown on opposition and potential dissidents continues. As of recently, more than 3,900 employees were sacked from the civil service institutions and military on suspicion of having links to a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Among them, more than 1,000 worked for the Ministry of […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (10:10 P.M.) – Russian officials condemned the recent Turkish airstrikes that targeted positions for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syrian and Iraq. The officials also praised the Kurdish forces for fighting the Islamic State organization, expressing more support for their right to defend their territories. “On April 25, it was reported […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

Q: Is POTUS considering a constitutional amendment to change press laws? PRIEBUS: "I think it's something that we've looked at." pic.twitter.com/fwZRMvsEjz — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 30, 2017 Courtesy of Mediaite: *While he was still a presidential candidate, Donald Trump floated out the idea of changing the libel laws to make it easier to sue media outlets over their reporting. Now that he’s president, it appears that this is potentially one promise that he’s looking to keep, commenting last month about changing the laws to go after the New York Times. * *Appearing o...more »

[image: undefined] Friday night’s failed missile launch by North Korea has exposed a kind of cognitive dissonance in the western mainstream media and also some alt-media sources. On the one hand, North Korea is an evil state whose nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems are capable of setting hell-fire upon East Asia and even parts of the western United States. At the same time, some of these same sources are promulgating an antithetical narrative that North Korea is little more than an ineffective dictatorship whose weapons delivery systems cannot get off the ground and who...more »

[image: undefined] Maybe the president believes he’s won a great victory over the wicked Syrians by lobbing cruise missiles at one of their underused air bases. Maybe Trump believes that he’s scared the evil Russians and the too big for their sampans Chinese into obedience. His 22,000 lb MOAB terror bomb on Afghanistan should keep those pesky Taliban quiet for a while even though the Pentagon claimed the intended target was a group – Khorosan – that may not actually exist. Those major malefactors, the crazy North Koreans, could be about to feel America’s full military might if they...more »

*Reuters:* *China-built amphibious aircraft takes maiden flight: Xinhua* China's domestically developed AG600, the world's largest amphibious aircraft, took its maiden flight ahead of schedule on Saturday from the southern city of Zhuhai, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The AG600 was designed to extinguish forest fires and carry out rescue missions at sea, Xinhua said on Saturday, adding that it could also "be used to monitor and protect the ocean." The seaplane's maiden flight comes amid China's increasing assertiveness to its territorial claims in the disputed So...more »

*Reuters*: *U.S. Marines back in Helmand as Afghanistan 'stalemate' continues* The U.S. Marine Corps has returned to Helmand, the restive province in southern Afghanistan where it fought years of bloody battles with the Taliban, to help train Afghan forces struggling to contain the insurgency. Many of the 300 Marines coming to Helmand as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support training mission are veterans of previous tours in the province, where almost 1,000 coalition troops, mostly U.S. and British, were killed fighting the Taliban. When they left in 2014, handing over the spra...more »

Iraqi paramilitary troops fire towards Isis militants during a battle with militants on the outskirts of the ancient city of Hatra, south of Mosul, Iraq. Reuters *Reuters*: *Iraqi commander says to complete capture of Mosul in May* An Iraqi commander expects to dislodge Islamic State from Mosul in May despite resistance from militants in the densely populated Old City district. The battle should be completed "in a maximum of three weeks", the army's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, was quoted as saying by state-run newspaper al-Sabah on Sunday. A U.S.-led inte...more »

*Al Jazeera*: *Kurdish-Arab force makes gains against ISIL in Tabqa* Fighting rages on, with US-backed SDF controlling ahout 40 percent of strategic town near ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have advanced against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) near the armed group's stronghold in Raqqa in northern Syria, according to a monitor. The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, now controls at least 40 percent of the town of Tabqa, and more than half of its heart, the Old City, the UK-based Syrian Observ...more »

[image: uc-berkeley-and-the-communist-plot-to-kill-free-speech] Among colleges and universities, the University of California, Berkeley has — since the 1960s — held the title as the most radically liberal. Hailed as “the birthplace of Free Speech,” the university and the town from which it draws its name have long been a seedbed of communist ideology. With that communist ideology having now come of age, Berkeley is becoming the deathbed of Free Speech.

PEC 215, a proposed amendment to Brazil’s constitution, threatens to make worse the already fragile plight of the country’s impoverished indigenous communities Ari Karai, the 74-year-old chief or cacique of Tekoa Ytu, one of two established Indian villages at the base of the peak, says the group intends to resist. “How can they evict us when this is recognised Indian land?” he asks. The dispute comes at a crucial time for Brazil’s more than 300 indigenous peoples. Earlier this month, more than a thousand indigenous leaders met in Brasília to protest and organise against PEC 215, a ...more »

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin students who disrupt speeches and demonstrations could be expelled and campuses would have to remain neutral on public issues under a bill Republican legislators are pushing this week. The bill comes as free speech issues have grown more contentious on college campuses across the country. Conservatives are worried that […]

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University officials say the college’s oldest all-male a capella group has been permanently dismissed from campus for hazing that included requiring new members to put Icy Hot muscle cream on their genitals. According to the Ivy League school’s website on hazing, Cayuga’s Waiters initially were suspended two weeks into the 2016 […]

URBANA, Ill. — A new statue on the University of Illinois’ campus honors women in engineering. Sakshi Srivastava, a graduate student in electrical engineering, began the campaign for the statue when she was a junior in the university’s undergraduate program to inspire women going into the male-dominated engineering field, The News-Gazette reported. Srivastava launched an […]

MONTREAT, N.C. — A private North Carolina Christian college is insisting that its faculty and staff sign a document that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. One faculty member says she and eight of her colleagues have refused to sign it and are leaving the school. News media outlets report that part of Montreat College’s “Community […]

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The investigation into the February death of a Penn State University fraternity pledge who fell down stairs is likely to result in charges against several people for “conduct surrounding the death of another person,” a prosecutor says in a new court filing. Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said Friday the […]

BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Hungarian government remained defiant Saturday over the possible closure of Budapest-based Central European University, founded by billionaire George Soros. The issue was on the agenda during Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s meeting in Brussels with leaders of the European People’s Party, of which his Fidesz party is a member. The EPP was […]

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah Health Care announced Saturday the appointment of an interim leader after the previous chief executive left in the wake of an uproar over a personnel decision. Lorris Betz has been named senior vice president for the University’s Health Sciences, CEO of University of Utah Health Care and […]

[image: fancy bear] Despite policy reversals President Trump continues to cast doubt on claims Russia hacked John Podesta and DNC and passed on their emails to Wikileaks. The post Trump casts doubt on Russian DNC/Podesta hacking claims appeared first on The Duran.

[image: john mccain] Senator John McCain casts further doubt on prospects of US military action against North Korea saying consequences would be "horrendous". The post Senator McCain: Consequences of US attack on North Korea “horrendous” appeared first on The Duran.

It was just a matter of when, but sooner or later everyone knew Ileana Ros-Lehtinen-- first elected to Congress in 1989-- would retire and FL-27 would go to the Democrats. The district has long ago left the realm of purple and has been deep blue for some time now. Only the furious on-going efforts of neighboring congresswoman and crooked crony Debbie Wasserman Schultz have kept Ros-Lehtinen safely ensconced in her seat and without serious Democratic challengers. Although the ridiculous and irrelevant clowns at *Cook* calculate the current PVI at R+2, Obama beat Romney 53.0% to 46....more »

The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction.They are only interested in themselves and not in what's best for U.S. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2017 Actually I would argue that the Democrats have better leaders than the Republicans right now. After this shot at the Dems Trump immediately jumped into selling some new and improved healthcare plan to his Twitter followers. You can't compare anything to ObamaCare because ObamaCare is dead. Dems want billions to go to Insurance Companies to bail out donors....New — Donald J. Trump (@realDonald...more »

By Paul Homewood http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39710313 The Royal Horticultural Society has just published a 45 page report “Gardening in a Changing Climate”. I strongly suspect that most gardeners will get most value out of it by putting it in the compost bin! It has been written by Dr Eleanor Webster, who is employed by the […]

Millions saw Theresa May’s campaign crumble after one simple observation from Andrew Marr. May will defend Britain, while Jeremy Corbyn is a national security risk … right? That’s the Conservatives’ flagship electoral posturing. But viewers of Marr saw that the narrative couldn’t last past a brief glance at recent history. The host pointed out: And […] The post Millions saw Theresa May crumble after one simple observation from Andrew Marr [VIDEO] appeared first on The Canary.

Workers were paid less than half the age of the average manufacturing employee in urban China A Chinese factory that produces clothing for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line has been accused of violating dozens of international labour laws by a retail industry watchdog. Workers earned just $62 (£48) for nearly 60 hours a week, according to the […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

Seoul says Washington is responsible to pay for the expenses of THAAD as they previously agreed on. Seoul rejected Trump’s demand for paying the expenses of the missile defense system that is being set up in South Korea to control the threat of the North. The system is reported to cost more than $1 billion. […] Source: AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

[image: fake news 2] Donald Trump was 9 years old when Loyalty Day became official in the United States. It was celebrated long before his birth. The post Fake News Alert: Donald Trump has NOT created Loyalty Day appeared first on The Duran.

We BBC bias watchers probably laugh at some things most other people don't laugh at. This morning's *Broadcasting House *paper review featured the man who founded BBC Three. His opening words were, "Well, I love *The Observer. *It's my favourite newspaper", which made me snort derisively and mutter to myself, "You don't say!". My feeling of merriment was based on the fact that I assume that *all *BBC employees, except Andrew Neil, will inevitably cite either *The Obverser *or its sister the *Graudian *as their favourite newspaper, whether asked or not, I just thought I'd share...more »

*Reuters:* *U.S.-led fight on ISIS have killed 352 civilians: Pentagon* At least 352 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday. The Combined Joint Task Force, in its monthly assessment of civilian casualties from the U.S. coalition's operations against the militant group, said it was still assessing 42 reports of civilian deaths. It added that 45 civilians were killed between November 2016 and March 2017. It reported 80 civilian deaths from August ...more »

Certainly did not pull any punches did he? I also saw some of Trump's pathetic rally last night, which should be described as a public therapy session for the tragically insecure. The entire bitch fest was overflowing with lies that Trump gleefully shared with the crowd, secure in the knowledge that most of them are functionally illiterate. Not only did Trump tell the unwashed dipshits that his presidency was the greatest presidency since the dawn of presidencies, but that he had completed a long list of amazing achievements. Why have we not heard of these achievements? Simple. M...more »

Donald Trump hinted he would start nuclear World War Three with North Korea, when he replied to a question, saying “I don’t know, I mean, we’ll see.” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-north-korea-nuclear-latest-war-a7710521.html Trump’s apparent willingness to start a disastrous war he has no hope of winning comes as the Pentagon Watchdog has announced a probe into his former […]

#SundayMorning #FakeNews Trump Wit Brands "Face The Nation" 😂 😂 " Deface the Nation " 😂 😂 pic.twitter.com/22qcvNALnw — AliceInDfaceDaNation (@American1765) April 30, 2017 If you found something like Donald Trump on your dog's ass, nut sack or anywhere else, you'd pluck it out with a pair of tweezers, burn it under a Bic until it pops then flush the remains down the toilet before sterilizing the tweezers in rubbing alcohol. That's what you're supposed to do with parasites like Trump. This umber-faced cunt and his spawn has been a massive drain on the nation's coffer...more »

*CNBC:* *Chinese paper mocks North Korea's tech prowess after failed ballistic missile launch* China's semi-official Global Times newspaper criticized an ongoing "game of chicken" between North Korea and Washington but also knocked Pyongyang's tech talents. Early Saturday, the reclusive communist nation launched yet another missile, presumably in a new display of force amid a verbal war of words with President Donald Trump. However, the missile exploded seconds after liftoff, and officials said the failed test involved a short-range, non-nuclear missile able to hit Seoul but not ...more »

*Clif High, "Predictive Linguistics: Huge Crisis Headed Our Way,* * Credit Freeze, Bank Runs & Riots"* - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBPXytF9rcg *"About Predictive Linguistics And Our Methods"* "Predictive Linguistics is the process of using computer software to aggregate vast amounts of written text from the internet by categories delineated by emotional content of the words and using the result to make forecasts based on the emotional 'tone' changes within the larger population. A form of 'collective sub-conscious expression' is a good way to think of it. Predictive linguistic...more »

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." - Morpheus *"Waking Up to Propaganda and Unplugging From the Matrix"* by Paul Craig Roberts "When did things begin going wrong in America? "From the beginning," answer some. English colonists, themselves under the thumb of a king, exterminated American Indians and stole their lands, as did late 18th and 19th century Amer...more »

*"Let It Roll Off Our Back: Dodging and Deflecting"* by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM "When we are criticized or attacked it is important to not take it into our heart space. One of the most difficult challenges in life is learning not to take things to heart and hold on to it. Especially when we’re younger, or if we’re very sensitive, we take so much of what comes our way to heart. This can be overwhelming and unproductive if it throws us off balance on a regular basis. When we are feeling criticized or attacked from all directions, it becomes very difficult for us to recover ourselv...more »

"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep." - Dale Carnegie Oh, it's the lack of sleep, too, lol. Trust me...

*"The Corporatocracy"* by Robert Gore "The interests of Washington and large corporations have merged so completely they are now inseparable. Or was it an acquisition? If the latter, who acquired whom? Unfortunately, the labels affixed to purely corporate combinations lose their analytical usefulness here. While the two retain their own distinct legal structures and managements, so to speak, such a close community of interest has evolved that it’s no longer possible to separate them or delineate their individual contours. Political labels are no help; the ones most often used have...more »

*"11 Reasons Why U.S. Economic Growth Is * *The Worst That It Has Been In 3 Years"* by Michael Snyder "Those that were predicting that the U.S. economy would be flying high by now have been proven wrong. U.S. GDP grew at the worst rate in three years during the first quarter of 2017, and many are wondering if this is the beginning of a major economic slowdown. Of course when we are dealing with the official numbers that the federal government puts out, it is important to acknowledge that they are highly manipulated. There are many that have correctly pointed out to me that if the n...more »

BBC drama, something I rarely watch, does seem (from comments I keep reading on various sites) to be an area of the BBC's output where the bias is especially blatant, and where certain kinds of messages keep getting pushed, often not very discreetly. This week's episode of *Doctor Who*, for example (the one BBC drama I usually* do* watch - and which is very much back on form again), was intended by its 'showrunner' Steven Moffat to deal with the issues of racism and the "whitewashing" of history, and to do so by "bending history". As Mr Moffat put it himself, quite openly: Histor...more »

Who remembers Jim DeMint? He was an ad guy in Greenville, South Carolina who was elected to the House in 1998 and then the Senate in 2004. He was a Tea Party guy before there was a Tea Party and was the staunchest proponent of ending Social Security and of reactionary politics in general while he served in Congress, often a pariah among establishment Republicans. Reelected to the Senate in 2010, he resigned 2 years later to become president of the Heritage Foundation, then a somewhat staid right-wing think tank. He was fired on Friday for... being the kind of asshole Jim DeMint ha...more »

[image: assange] The failure of the Swedish and British authorities either to bring charges against Julian Assange or to drop the case against him five months after he was questioned is an outrage. The post The Swedish and British case against Julian Assange grossly abuses his human rights and basic principles of justice appeared first on The Duran .

I was cited in “Analysis: ‘Signs of Recovery for the Islamic State,’” by Kyle Orton for The Henry Jackson Society. I was interviewed for "Can Iraq integrate Hashd paramilitaries into the armed forces?" by Paul Iddon for Rudaw.

Life after the Islamic State in Mosul. Toys were banned by the group, but now for sale in east Mosul (The Sun) April 29 the Joint Operations Command announced that there was a small advance in the Old City. The Federal Police and Rapid Reaction Division moved from 300 to 200 meters within the Grand Mosque in the district. In a rare occurrence, the Iraqi forces announced losses in the day’s fighting. 14 Federal Police were killed, and 20 wounded by a series of suicide bombers. Fourmore were killed by sniper fire. The Golden Division and police were also attempting to take the Zinja...more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.